Horner: Vettel was just venting his frustrations...

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has defended Sebastian Vettel following his post-race comments last weekend in which he labelled Narain Karthikeyan an 'idiot'.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has defended Sebastian Vettel following his post-race comments last weekend in which he labelled Narain Karthikeyan an 'idiot'.

Vettel clashed with Karthikeyan during the closing stages of the race in Malaysia. The Red Bull man was trying to lap the HRT when the incident occurred, leaving him with a puncture that required a pit-stop and dropped him out of the points. Karthikeyan subsequently said that the German's comments were 'shameful' and 'unprofessional' [see separate story - HERE], however, Horner added that the comments were just 'heat of the moment' stuff.

"He got a microphone shoved in front of him just after he's effectively lost a fourth-place position and of course he was annoyed, he vented his frustration," Horner told The F1 Show on Sky Sports F1 last night.

"But it's one of those things. I think that any driver in that situation would be totally annoyed with the situation.

"Obviously the stewards deemed that Narain was in the wrong and dealt with it accordingly.

"But I don't think anybody could blame Sebastian for being a bit frustrated in that situation."

Horner also added that he soon calmed down: "Obviously [he was] frustrated, he was driving very well, he was closing in on Lewis [Hamilton], and of course he was wanting to finish the race in a positive manner and there were a lot of points on offer there.

"[But] even half an hour after the race, the drivers sit in a debrief that goes on for about an hour, and hour and a half, he'd cooled down about it [by then]," Horner concluded.